Interview with Dominic Milton Trott

Interview with Dominic Milton Trott, creator of The Drug Users Bible, on harm reduction, ethics, and responsible drug information.

Dominic Milton Trott is the creator of The Drug Users Bible, a well-respected resource focused on harm reduction, safety, and responsible information-sharing for people who use substances.

We invited Dominic to discuss his work, his philosophy on harm reduction, and the responsibilities involved in publishing drug-related information. His perspective provides valuable insight into ethical guidance, risk reduction, and public health in spaces where official information is limited.

Harm Reduction Notice:
This interview is intended for educational purposes and to promote harm reduction. It does not encourage or endorse drug use. Readers are encouraged to seek reliable, evidence-based information and to prioritize their health and safety at all times.

All interviews reflect personal perspectives and experiences, not recommendations or encouragement to participate in illegal activity.

Origins & Motivation

What personal or professional experiences led you to begin The Drug Users Bible?

The whole idea emerged after I had encountered a Terence McKenna video about ayahuasca. I was intrigued by the concept of an almost guaranteed visionary experience, invoked in relative safety. Eventually I decided to go to Peru to try it. That was the real start of the project.

Was there a specific moment when you realized this project needed to exist?

I didn’t want to take ayahuasca as a psychedelic virgin, so I began to research on a forum called ‘The UK Chemical Research Forum’, basically to find some legal (at the time) psychedelics to try out in advance. It was there that I discovered how many people were in fact running into trouble, and in fact dying. It was there I discovered that ignorance kills and education saves lives.

I reached the conclusion that safety information should be far more accessible and easier to find than it actually was, particularly for new chemicals and a lot of the botanicals. Hence I started to document my own experiments, prior to the Peru trip.

Before publishing the book, did you expect it to reach the audience it has today?

Absolutely not. The first iteration of anything like a book was a spreadsheet, but that quickly became really complicated to use and limiting in terms of who could access it. The idea of a book did spring to mind but it was only on return from the ayahuasca trip that I felt that a book was something I could actually produce. I had no idea that it would take more than 10 years to complete at that point though, and I never expected it to gain the traction it did.

What misconceptions do you think people most often have about your work?

Too many people don’t actually read the whole of the front cover: they miss the words “Harm Reduction, Risk Mitigation, Personal Safety”. Hence they tend to fire off on their cultural programming, triggered by the word “Drug”. I tend to become a druggie producing entertainment for other druggies, via their propagandised misconception of who a typical drug user is.

Philosophy & Harm Reduction

How do you personally define harm reduction, and how does that definition guide your work?

I view harm reduction largely as helping people to stay safe when they use drugs. I go a little further than most because for me staying safe includes not being locked up, which is why I cover the law in The Drug Users Bible and have a large section on travelling as a drug consumer in my other book (Drug Tourism).

Some critics argue that detailed drug information enables use—how do you respond to that?

How to use drugs doesn’t need any input from me. Anyone can snort, eat or smoke without instruction. The difficult part is dosing correctly, understanding the experience prior to having it, knowing the onset time and duration, being aware of any contraindications, and so forth.

People are going to use drugs: to limit their knowledge and increase the risk of tragedy is indefensible, but that is what governments and their supporting cast (including mainstream media) do as routine.

In your view, where does personal responsibility intersect with public health?

The bottom line is that you are always responsible for your own decisions, but public health should be framed to arm you with the information you need to mitigate your risk.

Do you see harm reduction as a temporary necessity, or a permanent pillar of drug policy?

Provision of harm information should be a permanent feature. When you visit a medical practitioner you are provisioned with safety information (e.g. re dosage and frequency)… why shouldn’t this apply to recreational drugs? Obviously it should.

The encouraging news is that most darknet drug markets now provide a copy of The Drug Users Bible; in other words, they do more to protect the health and safety of drug consumers than most governments.

Methodology & Research Process

Your approach emphasizes firsthand experience—why was that important to you?

A wise man once told me that if I wrote a drug book without taking the drugs, I would be like a nun offering sex education. In terms of credibility he had a point.

Apart from this, however, a qualitative view of the experience is important for all sort of reasons; not least because it gives an indication of issues such as the degree of judgemental control you are likely to lose (e.g. will I fall into a compulsive redosing binge?).

How do you balance subjective experience with objective safety information?

I try to provide both. This is why the book presents the data first, with the subjective experience following.

What kind of preparation and safeguards do you use when researching substances?

I covered this generically in a section called ‘The 10 Commandments Of Safer Drug Use‘. It’s not complicated but I do urge consumers to be familiar with it.

Were there substances or experiences you chose not to document? Why?

The only substance I didn’t actually consume was fentanyl. This wasn’t down to nature of the chemical itself; it was due to the measurement problem.

With such a low active threshold, and a low fatal dose, I didn’t trust myself to measure it safely. Yes, I am aware of volumetric dosing, but with something measured in micrograms and low milligrams (2gm is commonly cited as fatal) it just seemed insane to risk it given my track record of practical ineptitude.

Ethics, Risk & Responsibility

How do you decide what information is ethically acceptable to publish?

I’d reverse that question. In what world is it ethical to deny drug consumers safety information? This is basically what I produce.

Have you ever struggled with the responsibility of knowing people may act on your work?

I have kids of my own. They way I would look at this issue is to ask whether I would want one of my kids to take a drug (let’s say ecstasy) WITHOUT harm reduction information, or WITH the pages in The Drug Users Bible covering MDMA. There’s only one sensible answer to this, and it’s to provision them with the data (plus all the other words I use to sell the idea of safety), at least as a start point to their research.

Having said that, I’d prefer they didn’t take drugs, including alcohol, lol.

Do you believe governments or institutions have failed drug users by not providing similar information?

I believe that governments should have written The Drug Users Bible tailored to their own populations. They might well have done a better job than I did. But they didn’t, because by and large they don’t care.

Reception & Impact

What kind of feedback from readers has stayed with you the most?

I always appreciate feedback, so long as it’s not just to tell me that I’m a druggie and a terrible person, which I know already, lol.

Feedback from people who have actually read the book has been awesome. People will have different opinions on some of the drugs because experiences can be subjective, but generally there is an appreciation of how it helps vulnerable people, that I did the best I could, and that at the end of the day it is free.

Have you seen evidence that your work has directly reduced harm?

I do receive PMs, DMs and emails telling me that I have saved the life of the sender. I think I wrote in the first edition of the book that if it saved a single life those 10-15 years of work will have been worth it.

How has the medical or academic community responded to The Drug Users Bible?

Some drug charities have helped to distribute and promote it, it’s apparently used in some medical institutions, and a number of academics have been kind. Having said this, there does seem to be a touch of disdain from some institutions presumably on the basis that I am perceived as a user, and even some people in this field are not immune from propaganda.

Has the book changed how you see drug users as a community?

Not personally no, because I always saw drug consumers as just everyday people, like myself.

Policy, Society & the Bigger Picture

What do you think modern drug policy gets fundamentally wrong?

How best to answer this? Well, there are quotes from the book scattered around the Internet, and one of the most common is this one:

“To hold sovereign and exclusive ownership of one’s own conscious mind, to explore freely and without boundary, is surely the most fundamental of human rights. Third party intrusion into this wholly personal territory is a grievous breach of this inalienable freedom.”

Basically I don’t believe in prohibition. That is not a people-first policy. It’s corrupt and it is a breach of our individual freedoms.

If you could change one aspect of how society approaches drugs, what would it be?

Legalize them and regulate, with the provision of harm reduction information.

Do you think prohibition has made drug use more dangerous? In what ways?

Quite apart from the fact that the supply is unregulated and thus subject to contamination, prohibition brings with it the censorship of the sort of information I promote. It does nothing to protect consumers, and it multiplies the risk of tragedy.

How do you see the future of harm reduction evolving over the next decade?

It can go two ways. It can be sidelined and even crushed, or there can me a dramatic re-think on the entire drug war concept. I wouldn’t hold my breath for the latter, but that definitely doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t be fighting for it.

Personal Reflections

Has working on this project changed you personally?

Yes. I used to use alcohol at the weekends, which is considered to be normal in my locale, even though it is a debilitating, toxic and addictive drug. After experimenting with so many alternatives, particularly psychedelics, I stopped drinking, except on rare occasions. There are better options and really, the experience overall is pretty shitty, in my humble opinion.

I think this alone made me a better person, with a wider more accepting perspective.

What has been the hardest part of maintaining this work over time?

I think the pressure I put on myself has been the hardest aspect. What I mean by this was that when I was writing, particularly the first edition, I was aware that people were dying for lack of the information I was documenting whilst I was actually working on it. I took this personally, such that eventually every hour became important: I needed to get this out there because I believed it was needed by desperate people.

This was why I was determined to complete it come what may. It’s also the reason the first edition, which was called The Honest Drug Book, wasn’t the last. I added another 42 drugs to the final edition, but felt under less stress whilst doing it.

Do you ever feel misunderstood because of what you do?

Yes, all the time, but only by people who don’t bother to work out what I am really doing. I’m well past caring about it to be honest.

What keeps you motivated to continue?

To some degree the feedback from people it has helped. Also, when you are as old as I am you begin to understand that the best thing you can do in life is to offer that helping hand wherever you can.

Advice & Closing

What advice would you give to people seeking drug information online today?

Start by going to www.DrugUsersBible.org or by downloading the book, then search far and wide for as much information on your drug of choice as you can find. You are responsible for your own safety and your own life, so don’t botch it. Stay safe.

How can underground or independent media contribute responsibly to harm reduction?

Report on the book and explain what it is. Give it away to your readers: it’s a PDF and this is easy to do. This will help to save lives.

Are there organizations or resources you believe more people should know about?

There are quite a few good orgs out there like Volteface and Release. Also forums, and on the darknet places like Dread and Pitch where there are people who will offer help. The hard part is to start looking, but once you do, you will find.

Is there anything you wish people would ask you—but rarely do?

I wish they would just feel more free to ask. I don’t bite and I will always answer.

Please be careful out there: stay safe always, and don’t become a victim of the regime. 🙂

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